How to knit
A Button Band
Picking up stitches for a button band
Sharing buttons:
this week's video is on picking up
stitches for button band
as always if you'd like to jump directly
to a specific point in the video there
are direct links down in the description
last week we talked about picking up
stitches along a vertical edge when the
existing fabric and the new fabric were
the same stitch pattern garter stitch
stockinette or is talking it like fabric
on vertical edges you don't pick up one
stitch for every row the way you pick up
one for one along horizontal edges
instead you end up skipping picking up
stitches at the ends of some rows we
talked about how for stockinette those
common ratios are up in two stitches for
every three rows or three stitches for
every four rows the process for picking
up stitches for a button band is similar
but you have to take into account that
the stitch pattern used for this button
bin is likely to be different then the
stitch pattern used for the body of the
sweater stitch patterns commonly used
for button bands are ribbing garter
stitch and seed stitch ribbing causes
the fabric to pull in compressing the
stitch gauge while garter stitch and
seed stitch have compressed row gauges
which cause the stitches to spread wider
in addition button bands are frequently
knit on needles that are smaller than
than those used for the body of the
sweater
since stitch pattern and needle size can
affect stitch gauge the number of
stitches that you need to pick up for a
button band may not be the same as what
you would pick up for a fabric that was
knit in the same stitch pattern so how
do you calculate the number of stitches
you need to pick up along a vertical
edge for a button band well the process
is basically the same as for any
vertical edge first multiply the stitch
gauge of the new piece of fabric by the
length of the vertical edge to give you
the exact number of stitches needed
second use an easy ratio for picking up
stitches to get you through the initial
pick up process an easy ratio has you
consistently pick up the same number of
consecutive stitches before skipping a
stitch so for stockinette that easy
ratio is usually two stitches for every
three rows or three stitches for every
four rows third compare the number of
stitches you have picked up using your
easy ratio to
the number of stitches you actually need
and then increase or decrease
accordingly in the first row of the
stitch pattern as a review of how that
works for stockinette let's look at an
example stockinette gauge is five
stitches and seven rows per inch and the
vertical edge is ten inches long
therefore you need to pick up stitches
at a rate of five stitches per inch and
five stitches per inch times ten inches
is fifty stitches you have 70 rows but
you need to pick up 50 stitches if you
use the two to three ratio to pick up
stitches
you'll end up with about forty seven
stitches you could then increase three
stitches on the first row to bring the
count up to fifty alternatively using
the three to four ratio would result in
52 or 53 stitches in that case you could
decrease a couple of stitches in the
first row regardless by the end of the
first pattern row you would end up with
the correct number of stitches so how do
we apply this technique to button bands
that would be knit in ribbing garter
stitch or seed stitch for ribbing worked
in the same needle size used for the
body of the sweater you can use the same
pick up number that you would use for
stockinette but you may need to adjust
your total stitch count based on how you
balance the stitch pattern for example
with knit one purl one ribbing you might
want all of the edges top and bottom to
start an end with knit one so you'd need
an odd number of stitches for knit two
purl two ribbing which is a multiple of
four stitches you might want all your
edges to start with knit two on the
right side of the fabric so you'd need a
multiple of four stitches plus two extra
to make that happen for ribbing my
preference is to always add the extra
stitches needed rather than subtracting
any
if you happen to know your stockinette
gauge is on those smaller needles you
can use that stitch gauge as your guide
for the number of stitches per inch to
pick up along the edge but if you don't
then you need to swatch you can swatch
and stockinette or you can swatch in
ribbing on the needles that you'd like
to use so here I have ribbing in three
different sizes this is the ribbing that
was worked on the same sized needles as
the stockinette this is two sizes
smaller and this is another two sizes
smaller so they were these are all 22
stitches and you can see that they're
all different lengths so the pick up
ratio is going to be different for each
of them as well so to figure out your
ratio for ribbing you do a little swatch
of the ribbing you lay out a certain
amount of stitches on the vertical edge
I've got three inches here because this
little sample isn't very long and then I
took my ribbing and I pinned it down so
it lined up with one edge here and then
I stretched at the amount that I thought
was appropriate so you want to stretch
it out so that the the ribbing lays flat
but the fabric is not actually stretched
out so so then I pinned that here and
then I can count up the number of
stitches that I had here so here I have
about 17 stitches and I've marked out
three inches here which was 21 rows so
it would be 17 stitches and 21 rows and
I would pick up accordingly once you
figure out what that that ratio is that
you want to pick up for the entire
button band you can practice on a
shorter span of stitches just to make
sure that it's going to lay the way that
you would like and that the the edge
isn't pulling in too much or that isn't
going to be too floppy so when I made
this button band I picked up about this
many stitches and I knit a sample band
to see how wide I really wanted it and
to see whether I liked this particular
ribbing
because garter stitch and seed stitch
have compressed row gauges that cause
the stitches to widen many knitters need
to pick up fewer stitches than they
would for stockinette when using the
same size needles for myself I know that
if I use the needle two sizes smaller I
can get the same stitch gauge and garter
that I got was stockinette on the larger
needles but this wasn't always true for
me in my old knitting style I would get
the same stitch gauge with the same
needles whether I was knitting
stockinette garter or seed stitch so you
need to swatch to know what your stitch
gauge is these two swatches are both 22
stitches wide net in garter stitch on
two different needle sizes this one is
the same size needle that it was used to
knit the stockinette and this one is two
sizes smaller you determine which fabric
you like and when you just determine
which fabric you like then you determine
then you look at the stitch gauge for
that piece of fabric and then from there
you calculate the ratio you need to pick
up along the edge if your garter stitch
gauge is 4.5 stitches per inch and your
row gauge on that vertical edge is 7
rows per inch then you will need to pick
up 4.5 stitches every 7 rows for a 10
inch edge you will need to pick up a
total of 45 stitches ok but how do you
even figure out what your easy ratio is
when you have a 4 point 5 to 7 ratio to
find the stitch gauge you're using for
the button band buy the row gauge of the
vertical band in this case you divide 4
point 5 by 7 and you get 0.6 for now
compare that to these easy pick up
ratios you can see that point 6 4 is
very close to the 2 to 3 ratio of 0.67
so use 2 2 3 as your easy pickup rate
then decrease the very few extra
stitches you'll end up with on that
first pattern row ok so now you know how
to calculate the total number of
stitches you need to pick up and how to
figure out what your easy pick up ratio
is but you may be wondering
why I suggested using a smaller needle
size for garter stitch and seed stitch
because they tend to spread but I didn't
suggest using a larger needle size for
ribbing even though I said that it pulls
in rib stitches are typically larger
than their stockinette counter points
when they're knit on the same size
needles there's more slack between rib
stitches than stockinette stitches from
switching the yarn position back and
forth and that slack works itself into
the stitches enlarging them since the
stitches are already larger that is
enough to compensate rather than
changing needle sizes one reason
knitters frequently use smaller needle
sizes for ribbing is in order to make
the stitches more equal in size to the
stockinette stitches in that case you
end up having to pick up more stitches
in order to combat the ribbons desire to
pull in this watch isn't it on needles
two sizes smaller than the stockinette
and they are much closer in size
once you know the total number of
stitches that you need to pick up along
that vertical edge you can use any
strategy you like in order to get
yourself to the correct total number of
stitches you don't have to use that easy
ratio and then correct on the first row
of pattern I offered several strategies
last week for how you can arrive at the
correct number well that's it for this
week next week I'll be demonstrating how
to pick up stitches in the center of the
fabric rather than along an edge if
you'd like to see the rest of the videos
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